Plot: The Mysterious Rider by legendary Western author Zane Grey is set in the Old West on a ranch called White Slides. It is run by old man Bill Belllounds, but he wants to turn it over to his son Jack, who has just recently returned from a three-year absence. Nineteen-year-old Columbine lives there as well as several ranch hands.

From the minute Columbine finds out the man who raised her isn’t really her father, things in her life change dramatically. The man she has always called ‘Dad’ now insists that she marry the boy she has always thought of as a brother. If that wasn’t bad enough, she couldn’t stand Jack. He was mean and lazy, but ‘Dad’ was determined she and Jack marry so the ranch wouldn’t be split up. Columbine is in love with one of her dad’s ranch hands.

Main Characters: Things are looking pretty grim for the two of them until a mysterious rider shows up and gets a job on the White Slides ranch. They call him Hell Bent Wade. He is a strange person, but he is determined to help Columbine marry the man she loves and not the worthless Jack.

What’s best (or not)? From cattle rustling to gambling and fighting, to the softer side of life, this book has it all.

Would you recommend? Yes.

Narrator’s style: The Mysterious Rider is narrated by Jack Sondericker. He has the characters down pat, and I think he does a fantastic job.

What would you rate the book? B+

Everything’s Eventual
Stephen King
This short story collection includes five dark,unabridged tales from Stephen King.

Everything’s Eventual features Dinky Earnshaw as a 19-year-old pizza delivery boy who gets hired by a mysterious stranger for a unique and totally “eventual” job.

Autopsy Room Four – The last thing Howard Cottrell remembers is entering the woods to find his golf ball. He wakes up as he is being rolled into an autopsy room.

In The Little Sisters of Eluria Roland is a gunslinger in a deserted town when he gets ambushed.

In Lucky Quarter Darlene is a single mom struggling to raise two kids on her income as a chambermaid in Reno. When Room 322 leaver her a quarter for a tip, Darlene lets that quarter take her for a ride.

The Road Virus Heads North tracks an author who buys a creepy painting at a yard sale. It was painted by a metal-head neighbor just before he committed suicide.

7.5 hours
Retail: $35
Simon & Schuster Audio

The Jazz Bird
Craig Holden
In Cincinnati, 1927, lawyer George Remus became the country’s biggest bootlegger, grossing over $80 million until his arrest. Upon his release from prison, he learns that his beautiful wife, Imogene, has left him and that his bank accounts are empty. On the morning of their divorce, he runs her car off the road in the middle of rush hour in Eden Park and shoots her to death.

Shocked and fascinated by this horrible crime, the country gears up for a sensational trial pitting the man known as “the king of the bootleggers” against Chief Prosecutor Charlie Taft, the youngest son of the former U.S. president.

Based on a true story, The Jazz Bird is at once a love story, a crime novel and the tale of the courtroom battle between two powerful men whose respective futures hang in the balance.6 hours
Retail: $26
Simon & Schuster Audio

Letters for Emily
Camron Wright
Harry Whitney is dying, and, in the process, he’s losing his mind. Afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, he knows his ‘good’ time is dwindling. Wishing to be remembered as more than an ailing old man, Harry realizes the greatest gift he can pass on is the wisdom of his years, the jumbled mix of experiences and emotions that add up to a life. And so he compiles a book of poems for his favorite granddaughter, Emily, in the hope that his words might somehow heal the tenuous relationships in a family that is falling apart.